JOIN DFA TODAY

Stand with Elizabeth Warren: Support the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act

July 10, 2015 - 6:11 pm

Sen. Elizabeth Warren, along with Senators John McCain, Maria Cantwell, and Angus King, is reintroducing the 21st Century Glass-Steagall Act, a bill to reduce taxpayers' risk in the financial system and decrease the likelihood of future financial crises.

This bill would rebuild the wall between commercial banks and investment banks -- with new protections to fill some of the holes punched in the original bill and to cover products that didn't exist in 1933. It won't end "too big to fail" all by itself, but it will reduce risk in the system and make financial institutions smaller and safer.

That episode and others offered clues to how Ocasio-Cortez and her social media practices fit into a national legislature that’s slowly becoming younger, less male and more diverse. The approach Ocasio-Cortez is modeling — and the political world is studying — gives her a measure of control by communicating directly with constituents and responding to critics in close to real time.

“She knows how to navigate this space in a way that others don’t,” said Yvette Simpson, incoming CEO of Democracy for America, a progressive political action committee. Also, Simpson pointed out, “She’s not accountable to that power structure” in Congress. “She’s accountable to the group that put her there.”